Hierarchical faceted metadata in site search interfaces

ABSTRACT

One of the most pressing usability issues in the design of large web sites is that of the organization of search results. A previous study on a moderate-sized web site indicated that users understood and preferred dynamically organized faceted metadata over standard search. We are now examining how to scale this approach to very large collections, since it is difficult to present hierarchical faceted metadata in a manner appealing and understandable to general users. We have iteratively designed and tested interfaces that address these design challenges; the most recent version is receiving enthusiastic responses in ongoing usability studies.

REFERENCES

• 1: Jennifer English, Marti Hearst, Rashmi Sinha, Kirsten Swearington, and Ping Yee. Examining the usability of web site search, 2002. MS, in progress.
• 2: Catherine Plaisant , Ben Shneiderman , Khoa Doan , Tom Bruns, Interface and data architecture for query preview in networked information systems, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.17 n.3, p.320-341, July 1999 [doi>10.1145/314516.314522]

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
iterative design, search user interfaces, www